Games and Rituals

‘Superb’ THE TIMES ‘Joyous’ THE OBSERVER The beloved author of Early Morning Riser brings us eleven glittering stories of love – friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, ill-advised trysts – in all its forms, both ridiculous and sublime. The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous to tender. In ‘Bridesmaid, Revisited,’ Marilee, suffering from a laundry and life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid’s dress to work. In ‘Twist and Shout,’ Ericka’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In ‘Turn Back, Turn Back,’ a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor’s deception. And in ‘561,’ Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home. From one of our most celebrated writers, our bard of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wrong shoes, late for the wrong job, but loved by the right people, Katherine Heiny has delivered a work of glorious humour and immense kindness. In her latest literary fiction, Katherine Heiny continues to explore the themes of marriage and divorce, weaving them into her short stories with a deftness that only a top-tier author can achieve. The games and rituals of her characters, often caught in the throes of love's ridiculous and sublime moments, are a testament to her prowess in the genre. For fans of Laurie Colwin (Happy All the Time), Elizabeth Strout (Tell Me Everything), David Nicholls (You Are Here), Catherine Newman (Sandwich), and Colm Tóibín (Long Island). HarperCollins 2023